Thyroid Disorders

The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped gland located in the center of the neck. It controls the body’s metabolism and its functioning is connected with every system in the body. If the thyroid fails to function properly, so does the body. An estimated 27 million Americans have a thyroid problem (such as Grave’s disease). Half of this number are not even aware that they have a problem. Hypothyroidism, or an underactive thyroid, makes up about 90% of all thyroid imbalances.

Thyroid disease can often be misunderstood. As such, many people who are diagnosed with these problems are unable to get relief from common pharmaceutical treatments. Others are never even diagnosed with a thyroid-related illness because the results of routine tests often read as “normal.” Even so, there are several symptoms that arise due to an underactive thyroid, such as:

• Fatigue
• Mood issue, including mood swings, anxiety, or depression
• Weight gain, or difficulty losing weight
• Hormone imbalances, such as PMS, irregular periods, infertility, or low sex
• drive
• Muscle pain
• Joint pain
• Carpal tunnel syndrome or tendinitis
• Cold hands and feet
• Dry or cracking skin
• Brittle nails and excessive hair loss
• Constipation
• Poor concentration, brain fog, or poor memory
• Neck swelling
• Snoring
• Hoarseness

The reason why it’s difficult to diagnose a thyroid imbalance is because the symptoms can be vague. A doctor may not be able to spend enough time talking with a patient to sort out the cause of any complaints they are reporting. Most doctors use only one or two tests to screen for problems and use “normal” lab reference ranges as their guide. Not checking other aspects of the body (such as FT3, RT3, or thyroid antibodies) can leave a thyroid disorder undetected.

At My Pure MD, our goal is not only to diagnose and subsequently treat thyroid diseases, but also to evaluate and understand the root causes of your condition so that they can be addressed as well. We examine your physiology, environment, nutrition, and even nutrigenomics, which tells us how your genes interact with your diet. Besides the standard one or two tests normally performed, we use additional tests to detect secondary indicators of thyroid disease. These include procedures to identify bacterial overgrowth in the gut and tests to measure effects in the autonomic nervous system.

Lab Testing

• TSH
• Free T4
• Free T3
• Reverse T3
• Total T3
• Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies (TPOAb)
• Thyroglobulin Antibodies (TgAb)

We blend art and science by examining all of the systems in your body and how they interact, then diagnose you as an individual instead of relying on routine tests that identify conditions based on the population. Doing so allows us to identify the deeper causes of a thyroid condition and prescribe a more personalized treatment.

Treatments

• One or more of the following treatments may be used:
• Changes to diet and lifestyle
• Healing the gut
• Nutrient and herbal support for the thyroid gland
• Lowering inflammation
• Balancing the HPA and addressing adrenal fatigue
• Decreasing exposure to toxins, improving body’s ability to detoxify
• Thyroid medications
• Compounded T4/T3 for extremely specific dosing